Questions on duplicates?

Deduplication of existing duplicated entries

Duplicates occur mostly when addresses are created. The fact that the person or company’s details are already saved in the database is not recognised. Common causes are:

Verbal misunderstandings, poor legibility, spelling or typing errors

Recipient’s change of address or change of name (marriage, divorce)

The renaming of streets after incorporation of one local authority by another.

In the B2B area, the numerous ways possible to write a company name (BMW vs. BMW AG vs. Bayerische Motoren-Werke etc.).

Duplicates often occur when various databases are merged together without deduplicating, as well as the addition of out of house address lists for marketing campaigns which were rented or purchased.

Solution: Deduplication for international addresses

In a deduplication, each single address is merged against all the other addresses in your database. The aim is to mark and/or eliminate duplicate addresses, so that only one record exists for each recipient. An alternative is a duplicate check as the data is being entered to avoid duplicates before they occur.

It is important that during a deduplication no information is lost. It is also feasible that a record may have a telephone number but no email address and that the duplicate has the information precisely the other way around. So the aim is to merge the information.

Advantages of the deduplication process

Fewer inactive companies = lower maintenance requirements

No unnecessary costs by sending two mailings to one and the same person